Archaeology Under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East / Edition 1

by Lynn Meskell

Overview

The Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean are some of the most politically charged regions in which archaeology is implicated. Historically, they played a formative role in the birth of archaeology as a discipline. Archaeology Under Fire addresses archaeology's role in current political issues, including the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, the division of Cyprus, and the continued destruction of Beirut. The contributors consider the positive role of the past as a means of reconciliation, whether it be in Turkey, Israel, and the Gulf. They advocate a responsible global archaeology, and an awareness of contemporary issues can only enhance this aim.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415196550
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/12/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lynn Meskell is Research Fellow at New College, Oxford. She has undertaken fieldwork in Egypt, Cyprus and Greece. Her research interests include Egyptian and Mediterranean archaeologies, the application of feminist theory and sociopolitics to archaeology and she has written extensively on these subjects.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations, List of contributors, Introduction: Archaeology matters, 1 Archaeology, politics and the cultural heritage of Cyprus, 2 The past is ours: images of Greek Macedonia, 3 Contests of heritage and the politics of preservation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 4 Bulgarian archaeology: ideology, sociopolitics and the exotic, 5 Ideology and archaeology in Turkey, 6 The past as passion and play: Çatalhöyük as a site of conflict in the construction of multiple pasts, 7 Beirut’s memorycide: hear no evil, see no evil, 8 Conjuring Mesopotamia: imaginative geography and a world past, 9 Whose game is it anyway? The political and social transformations of American Biblical Archaeology Neil Asher, 10 The Gulf Arab states and their archaeology, 11 Memorabilia: archaeological materiality and national identity in Egypt, 12 Ancient Egypt in America: claiming the riches, Index